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69 posts categorized "Terrorism: Detainees"

August 23, 2009

More confirmation, as if any were needed, of the Bush administration's indifference to the Rule of Law. From a 2-page article in The Washington Post:

"The [CIA], where appropriate, took its own disciplinary action when
the Department of Justice declined prosecution," CIA spokesman George
Little said Saturday.

A spokesman for the agency declined to comment on details of the
episodes, but current and former government officials said the use of
the gun is described in a classified CIA inspector general's report,
which is slated to be released in declassified form on Monday....

A federal judge in New York ordered the release of the report in
response to a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union. Attorney
General Eric H. Holder Jr. has been reviewing the document in an effort
to decide whether to launch an investigation into the CIA's coercive
interrogation methods....

The U.S. anti-torture statute bans acts intended to inflict severe
mental or physical pain or suffering resulting from, among other
things, "the threat of imminent death" or threats of being "subjected
to death." (Read article)

July 21, 2009

The Obama administration's task force on Guantanamo detentions has requested, and been granted, a six-month extension to "flesh out" its plans for closing Gitmo. (CNN) The interrogation task force got a two-month extension. Civil libertarian and attorney Jonathan Turley sums up pretty well the thoughts of this progressive.

In yet another failure to honor its promises to civil libertarians, the
Obama Administration has failed to honor its own deadline for the
submission of a report on its policy for the detention of terror
suspects. The report was expected to give details on Obama’s promise to
shutdown the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay...

June 14, 2009

by Damozel | Saying that he was trying to balance "a clash between war and the defense of personal freedoms," federal district Judge Jeffrey White, a Bush appointee, refused to dismiss a lawsuit by convicted terrorist Jose Padilla against Bushie John Yoo, now a law professor at UC-Berkeley. (AP at MSNBC) While such a lawsuit would be many times less satisfactory than action by the current administration to hold responsible members of the Bush administration accountable, at least it is a step in that direction.

Judge White wrote:

"Like any other government official, government lawyers are responsible for the foreseeable consequences of their conduct....The issues raised by this case embody that ... tension — between the
requirements of war and the defense of the very freedoms that war seeks
to protect....This lawsuit poses the question addressed by our founding fathers about
how to strike the proper balance of fighting a war against terror, at
home and abroad, and fighting a war using tactics of terror." (AP at MSNBC)

June 12, 2009

by Damozel | So far, more than 50 detainees have been cleared for release based on individual review of their files. (WaPo) But where can they go? Not here, it seems, even though these detainees -- confined at Gitmo for seven years -- never counted America as an enemy. (BN Pol)

The island of Palau has agreed to take 13 Uighurs (Chinese Muslim detainees) whom a federal judge ordered released. Germany, where there is a large Uighur population, balked, asking -- reasonably, let it be said -- why, if the Uighurs aren't dangerous, they can't settle in the US? The Chinese certainly wanted them back, calling them "terrorist
suspects," but the Obama administration declined, fearing that they'd
be tortured and executed. (WaPo)

Four of the Chinese detainees will become guest workers in Bermuda (WaPo), though the British government ain't happy about this wanton display of independence by Bermuda. (Murdoch Times)

June 10, 2009

by Maggie Temple-Smith | Palau, a "sparsley populated archipelago in the North Pacific," has agreed to accept the 17 Chinese now in prison at Guantanamo, The New York Times reports. This is the first agreement reached since Obama took office -- so far, 100 countries have said, "No, thanks" when asked to accept Gitmo detainees.

[The agreement] gives Mr. Obama some relief on an issue that has become a
political hot button among Congressional Republicans and even some
Democrats, who have noisily protested against releasing what they call
potentially dangerous extremists on American soil or transferring them
to prisons in the United States.

June 03, 2009

by Damozel | According to The Washington Post, Cheney met at least 4 times in 2005 with senior members of Congress to "maintain support" for torture, part of a "secretive and forceful" defense of the program.

Cheney's role in helping handle intelligence issues in the Bush
administration -- particularly his advocacy for the use of aggressive
methods and warrantless wiretapping against alleged terrorists -- has
been well documented. But his hands-on role in defending the
interrogation program to lawmakers has not been previously publicized.

Does that mean that the 44 Obama is fighting the ACLU to keep suppressed are even worse? I don't like to imagine how that can be, and specifically so because of the apparent lack of accountability. If they are worse, is no one going to be made to answer?

Alternatively, does all this just mean that Obama isn't aware of what's already in the public domain? I don't get it.

by Teh Nutroots | I mean, look, come on: they're the CIA. Do people really think that they are on close terms at all times with the truth as it might appear to you and me? Don't we all pretty much assume that they lie reflexively, whenever they need to obscure a spot of excess zeal or whatever? Don't we all reckon that they're the ultimate ends-justify-the-means agency in America? Isn't history clear on this point?

Specter didn't go quite that far, acknowledging that it isn't official CIA policy to misrepresent the facts, but he went far enough.

"The CIA has a very bad record when it comes to — I was about to say
'candid'; that's too mild — to honesty," Specter, a former chairman of the Senate Intelligence
Committee, said in a lunch address to the American Law Institute. He cited
misleading information about the agency's involvement in mining harbors
in Nicaragua and the Iran-Contra affair.

"In the war on terror, it was okay to waterboard a guy over 80 times to get him to talk, but God forbid that we keep the guy around who can understand what he was saying...if he has a boyfriend." After the jump.....

In testimony that could bolster Speaker Nancy
Pelosi's claim that the CIA misled her during briefings on detainee
interrogations, former Senator Bob Graham insisted on Thursday that he too was
kept in the dark about the use of waterboarding, and called the agency's
records on these briefings "suspect."

In an interview with the Huffington Post, the
former Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman said that approximately a month
ago, the CIA provided him with false information about how many times and when
he was briefed on enhanced interrogations.

by Damozel | Whoa. As in "Wow." This is from Col. Lawrence B. Wilkerson, former chief of staff of the Department of State during the term of Secretary of State Colin Powell and -- yes -- a Republican. Who badly wants Cheney to shut up "as we try to repair the extensive damage you've done--to the country and to its Republican Party." [Washington Note]

First, more Americans were killed by terrorists on Cheney's watch than on
any other leader's watch in US history. So his constant claim that no
Americans were killed in the "seven and a half years" after 9/11 of his
vice presidency takes on a new texture when one considers that fact.
And it is a fact.

May 13, 2009

In which SC's Lindsey Graham thinks every principle on which our nation was founded should give way before cowardice and fear for one's own skin. Meanwhile, our country's moral standing is shown to be damaged and our security not enhanced by the administration's use of torture....after the jump.

by Bill Kavanagh: Look for Ali Soufan, who was the FBI’s agent in charge of debriefing Abu Zubaydah until he discovered a coffin had been brought to Zubaydah’s cell by the CIA, to testify today before Congress about the torture techniques that CIA “experts” employed with high-value Al Qaeda prisoners.

Soufan claims that Zubaydah confided to him that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, once his “rapport building” technique had begun to pay off—and before the CIA’s own outsourced amateur consultants arrived in Thailand to take over with their torturous methods.Der Spiegel’s article on the CIA's outsourcing of interrogation and torture to civilian psychologists is available at the link.Many thanks to David Martin, who pulled this article from the internets.

On Larry King Live Jesse Ventura takes on the Bush administration
chickenhawks and Rush Limbaugh, and defends Colin Powell. After being
waterboarded himself in the SERE program, Ventura makes no bones about
it. Waterboarding is torture. I'd like to see Hannity have Ventura on
his show to debate the issue.

Ventura says he'd prosecute everyone who was involved in torture, right down the line. He also points out that if waterboarding isn't done correctly, the recipient could actually drown.

Finally, he defends Colin Powell against chickenhawk Cheney and calls for legalization of drugs! Are we more offended by drugs or murder? he asks. Awesome.

May 03, 2009

by Damozel | Back in 2003, it seems, Bush made a seemingly benevolent and quite correct statement concerning the US attitude toward torture, which sent alarm bells ringing up and down the line in the CIA. (New York Times) ""The United States is “committed to the worldwide elimination of torture
and we are leading this fight by example,” Mr. Bush proclaimed, vowing to
prosecute torture and to prevent “other cruel and unusual punishment.”"

Naturally, he didn't mention that he'd authorized CIA interrogators to use "brutal tactics" on Al Qaeda detainees. (NYT) The proclamation was issued in support of the UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. And, the rest, as they say, is history: